


A Kisses and Cuddles Kind of Guy

by Pyreite



Series: Shades of Ryder [6]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Flirting, Bets & Wagers, Boyfriends, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Pajamas & Sleepwear, Propositions, Romance, blowing off steam
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 18:23:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15149129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pyreite/pseuds/Pyreite
Summary: Ryder is miserable and unhappy about being the Pathfinder.  The pressure is taking it's toll so she turns to the one person on the Nexus that understands.  Problem is he thinks she's downright crazy and needs a little convincing to take her seriously.  She's soft and squishy, while turians are all hard angles and rough edges.  How the hell can they make this work?





	A Kisses and Cuddles Kind of Guy

**Author's Note:**

> Edited and reposted, after an accidental deletion.

Kandros couldn’t believe it when Ryder showed up at his post on the Nexus, breathing hard. She looked like hell-warmed over, her hair a mess, her face red and blotchy. She looked like she’d been crying for the past hour, judging from the grimy black streaks on her face. He knew human women wore something to darken their eyelashes. Ryder’s mascara had run down her cheeks, slick as water – staining her skin a lurid grey.

She was still gorgeous with her big green eyes, but she looked tired and miserable. Kandros didn’t quite know what to say to make her feel better. He could smell the briny stink of her tears, the alcohol on her breath. He had no idea where she’d managed to dig up a bottle of vodka. Their stock of booze had run dry months ago. Although Kandros wouldn’t have been surprised if Kesh had wrangled a deal out of Zed. 

The Bootleggers Association of Kadara could supply anything but fine wine and Ryncol. Krogan were picky when it came to their booze, and some humans and asari were stuck-up toffs. Kandros doubted Ryder was a toff if she’d been drinking Zed’s poor excuse for vodka. She wasn’t sozzled, but she did stink of sorrow, booze, and something that set Kandros’ teeth on edge. It was rich, sweet, and rolled across the back of his tongue like fire when he took a deep breath.

“Ryder”, he growled. “What’s wrong?”

She sniffled, biting her lip. “I didn’t know where else to go. You’ve got to believe me. No one understands. They expect me to suck it up and deal with it”.

“Deal with what?”

“You know, Kandros”.

“Oh right. Your responsibilities as Pathfinder”.

“Yeah”.

Kandros snorted, trying to blow the stink of her arousal out of his nostrils. She was surprisingly calm for a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Kandros saw the bags under her eyes, the lines of weariness at the corners of her mouth. She was coiled tighter than a spring about to snap. She hadn’t slept, even though she was dressed for bed.

Only Sara Ryder would run around the station in a corel onesie sporting rainbow unicorns. The fluffy pink slippers made him chuckle, especially when Ryder put her hands on her hips. She was downright adorable when she stomped her feet. Kandros couldn’t help but snicker. His amusement cooled the moment Ryder barked.

“Stop! It’s not funny!”

Humans were sensitive about their emotions. It was best to calm her down before she went into hysterics. Human women had a tendency to cry when they were upset. Kandros didn’t want to drown in Ryder’s tears if she started leaking. He wasn’t sure if she’d weep water or vodka, so he thought it best not to take chances.

He needed to keep her calm.

“Sorry, Ryder”.

Kandros tensed when her lower-lip wobbled. He was leery the moment she wiped her eyes, smearing the mascara across the bridge of her nose. She looked like a black-eyed varren, but Kandros didn’t tell her that aloud. Ryder had a reputation for delivering an uppercut, followed by a knee to the pills when she was angry. Kandros preferred not to tempt fate even if turian bollocks were sheathed internally.

He shuddered to think of Tann reading a med cert issued by Harry, the Nexus’ resident doctor. He knew Tann would demand an explanation for him needing a couple weeks bed-rest. Harry would refuse to breach patient confidentiality on principle. The bruising of a male turian’s penile sheath was a serious medical emergency. Kandros liked his bollocks blue not purple.

“Hey”, called Ryder. “You all right?”

“Sure”, replied Kandros. “Provided you don’t knee me in the balls”.

Ryder blushed. “You’ve been talking to Drack”.

“And Kesh. You’ve got a rep, Ryder. Try to take it easy on us desk-jockeys. I don’t do this job because I want too. I do it because I have too, just like you”.

Ryder smiled, a tad sheepish as her fisted hands slipped off her hips. She was awkward now, pink-cheeked, and painfully aware of her attire. Kandros pitied her the moment she wiped her hands down the front of her onesie. Her mouth turned down unhappily, as she cast surreptitious glances left and right. She saw a couple of his aides skulking in the back of the Militia HQ. 

“Don’t sweat it”, soothed Kandros. “They’re turian. They won’t give a shit”.

“Really?” Ryder asked meekly. “I’m in my pjs”.

“They’d only care if you were naked”.

“What? Why?”

Kandros’ careless shrug made her giggle. “It’s a turian thing. Being the Pathfinder makes you my superior. If you walked into my office naked, other turians would assume you were marking territory. They’d make themselves scarce, suspecting you were trying to seduce me”.

Ryder’s eyes were big. “Really?”

“Yeah. But that’s crazy. You’d never do that”.

Kandros chuckled, thinking it absurd until Ryder shuffled her feet. She fidgeted like a turian fledgling barely out of the nest. He gaped, mandibles flaring in surprise when she wrung her hands. He inhaled again, snorting when he smelt that same thick, heady scent like fire on his tongue. He backed up a step, swearing when one of his spurs cracked on the edge of the holotable. Ryder made a noise of sympathy, but didn’t pursue him.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine”.

She tucked a strand of red hair behind an ear. “Liar”.

“Ryder”.

“I can see you shaking from here”.

Kandros felt the tremor in his limbs too, although it wasn’t from fear. He was shaking with anticipation, a predatory response to Ryder’s clumsy foreplay. It seemed that she’d been around Turians long enough to know their habits. Blowing off steam was a mutual benefit when it curbed their baser impulses. Kandros had never thought she’d had this in mind when she’d stumbled into his office in her pjs.

“Wait. This is crazy”.

Ryder reached for the zipper at the front of her onesie. She pulled it down with a rip of tiny plastic teeth to reveal the bare skin of her clavicle. Kandros swallowed when he saw the soft cleft of her breasts. She unzipped a few more tantalising inches to reveal bare skin and the tan lines of her missing briefs. Another inch and she’d have been in her birthday suit.

“You can stop doing that now”.

Ryder bit her lip. “You sure? I'd like to be clear about what I want. About who I want”.

Kandros nodded like a ventriloquist’s dummy, sure he had a hand shoved up his ass. Something was making him nod as if he were a puppet. He was so shocked by Ryder’s audacity that it was hard not to swallow his own tongue. She had come to his office like a present in need of unwrapping. Kandros was more appalled than turned-on.

“Ryder. You’re drunk”.

“I’m not”.

“What?”

Ryder fiddled with the fly of her zipper. Kandros could still see the delectable expanse of her bare stomach. The hint of red hair below her belly-button make his insides churn. He wasn’t sure if she’d thought this through. Teasing an unmated male turian was a social faux pas and downright mean-spirited.

“I can’t get drunk”, explained Ryder. “I try, but my biotics burn through the alcohol before I can get buzzed. It pisses me off. I’m tired, upset, and I’ve been crying for the last four hours. I can’t get a decent bowl of fucking ice-cream because we’re not in Citadel space. And I can’t kiss and cuddle with a boyfriend because I don’t have one yet”.

Ryder gave him a long hard look.

Kandros’ breath caught in his throat. “You’re picking me?”

“Yeah. I trust you, and I like you too. I haven’t had the courage to ask you out. So here, I am. And there you are. And geeze this is awkward”.

“You’re not wearing underwear”.

“I know”.

“Did you plan on seducing me?”

Ryder nodded. “Kind of”.

“In a onesie?”

“It was the only thing I brought with me from the Milky Way!”

“You could’ve worn your undersuit”, reproved Kandros. “You know the thing you wear under your armour”.

Ryder sniffed, offended. “I wanted to be comfortable!”

“Well, that makes one of us. Spirits, Ryder. Didn’t it ever occur to you how uncomfortable this would make me? I’m turian. You’re human. We’re different species”.

She glared at him. “So?”

Kandros’ mandibles clacked against his chin. He inhaled a shaky breath, caught off-guard. He’d never suspected that Sara Ryder had a thing for him. Sure he liked her too, but he’d never heard of a human bumping uglies with a turian. She was soft and squishy, and he was all hard angles, and rough edges.

How the hell would they even make it work?

“You sure you can’t find something closer to home?”

The tears welled in the corners of Ryder’s eyes. “I don’t want something closer to home! I want you!”

Kandros panicked. “Spirits! Please don’t cry!”

“It is because, I’m human?”

“A little. And you might have a dextro allergy. It’d be real embarrassing if the Pathfinder died screwing me”.

Ryder was quick to correct him. “Well that’s good then, because I’m not”.

“You’re not what?”

“Allergic to dextro-proteins. Do you have a levo allergy?”

Kandros was fast running out of excuses. “No”.

Ryder brightened. “So? You wanna make a go of it with me?” She spread her arms wide, a smile on her face despite the mascara smeared across her cheeks. She hiccuped when Kandros said nothing, taking his silence for rejection. Her lower-lip wobbled, the tears ready to fall when he finally found the courage to say something.

“Why me?”

Ryder sobbed. “Why not you? You get me, Tiran. You always have. And you understand what I’m going through. It’s hard being me right now. So fucking hard”.

She was crying when Kandros made his choice. He took a step towards her, mandibles fluttering like the wings of a butterfly. He was nervous as hell, wondering what the fuck he was doing when he crossed the floor. He stopped before Ryder, looking down at her small, fragile form. He wondered how someone so tiny could be so strong.

She was an emotional wreck, hanging on by a thread. Her dad was dead, her brother stuck in the medbay, and she’d had to assume the responsibility of being a Pathfinder. She had balls of steel too, like her old man. But now the strain was starting to show, the wear and tear. Ryder was struggling to hold it together. 

The pressure of filling her daddy’s shoes was wearing her down to the nub. 

Kandros doubted she’d last much longer without some kind of release.

“Yeah”, he told her. “I do understand. Been there myself”.

Ryder peered up at him from under tear-wet lashes. “So? You want to be my boyfriend?”

He chuckled, as he cupped her cheek careful not to scratch her with his talons. “Yeah. Definitely”. Ryder leaned into his touch, suddenly shy. Kandros made sure to look down her top. He hummed in appreciation when Ryder reddened to the roots of her hair. He chuckled as he leaned inwards, mandibles opening wide.

Ryder hissed when he licked the slope of her throat.

“Fuck”.

“We will. Soon, baby. Then we’ll talk about all the good things and the bad. I promise. Then you’ll stay the night and sleep in my bed”.

“I’d like that”.

“I know you would. I’m a kisses and cuddles kind of guy”.

Ryder gasped when Kandros looped his arms around her waist. He pulled her tight to the broad barrel of his chest. Ryder groaned when he cupped her ass, squeezing through the thin material of her pjs. She was too busy squirming to notice Kandros’ aides take stock of their encounter. Lieutenant Sajax bumped fists with another turian.

“We called it”.

“Damned straight”, said Virelyxx Cass, a brown-plated male turian with purple clan-markings. “Ryder’s been making goo-goo eyes at Kandros for weeks. I knew she’d make a move on him. She just needed the right opportunity. And the right motivation”.

A surly green-eyed turian scoffed. “Yeah, yeah, Virelyxx. Everyone knows about her brother waking up in Cryo. Pull your head out of your ass. It’s not rocket-science. Ryder’s been cracking under the pressure since her dad croaked”.

“Hey!” snapped Sajax. “That’s our Pathfinder you’re talking about! Show some damned respect!”

The green-eyed turian snorted. “Whatever, Sajax. Ryder’s needed to blow off more steam than the rest of us. If Kandros can help keep her sane. I’m glad for it”.

“You still lost the bet, bright eyes”.

“Yeah”, seconded Virelyxx. “Pay up”.

The turian groaned. “Fine, ya smartasses”. He tapped away at the omnitool on his wrist, grumbling all the while as he transferred a sum of credits. “There, now shut it. I’ve got work to do, so fuck off”.

Sajax, Virelyxx, and their fellow aide tensed when a flanging voice interrupted their little get-together.

“What’re you three up too?” called Kandros.

Sajax made herself scarce. “Nothing sir”.

“What she said”, seconded Virelyxx as he wandered off to do something productive.

Kandros snorted as they made their escape. He glowered at their chum, a ruddy-plated turian with lavender clan-markings. “And you Lieran?”

“Nothing, sir. If you don’t mind. I’ve got work to do”.

Kandros rolled his eyes when Lieran Sidonis turned his back on him. He hunched over a workstation, humming to himself as he tapped away at a keyboard. He was lost in his work, ignoring everything and everyone. Kandros was annoyed when Ryder giggled. He turned back to her, apologising for his subordinates being asses.

“Sorry about that”.

Her smile was beatific. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. They are right, though. I have had my eye on you for weeks”. She batted her lashes at him. “Now, do what you promised. Take me to bed, Tiran”.

“With pleasure”.

Lieran glanced over his shoulder when Kandros took Sara Ryder by the hand. He chuckled, when she was led out of Militia HQ and towards the elevator leading out of Operations. He hated losing bets, but this once he didn’t mind. The Pathfinder was about to have her world rocked by the best of them. Kandros was kind, dedicated, and hard-working.

If anyone would make her a good mate. 

It was Kandros.


End file.
